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Climate change means more money needed for roads

A report from the National Academies suggests that the impacts of climate …

As anyone who saw news footage of the I-35 bridge fall into the Mississippi knows, the US' transport infrastructure is not in the best shape. Estimates from the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission suggest that at least $220 billion a year is needed to pay for necessary repairs to the country's roads and highways, but that figure may need to be revised upwards, according to a new report from the National Academies.

The report, from the National Research Council, is entitled "Potential Impacts of Climate Change on US Transportation" and assesses the future impact that alterations to Earth's climate will have on the roads, railways, and waterways of the nation. The report identifies five main impacts of changing climate:

Increases in heat waves and very hot summers

Increases in Arctic temperatures

Rising sea levels and storm surges

Increase in intense precipitation

Increases in hurricane intensity

The report finds that the greatest impact will be felt by the 53 percent of the US population who live in coastal counties; here, a confluence of the impacts listed above will act in concert to flood coastal roads, railways, runways, and transit systems. In Alaska (and Canada), thawing permafrost is already causing subsidence that damages infrastructure, including roads and pipelines. The much greater likelihood of heat waves in some regions will affect road and rail links.

Not all of the findings are bad news, however. The melting of the polar ice cap means that shipping transport will have new and faster routes between the Atlantic and Pacific, and the possibility of less severe winters could mean reduced expenditures on repairs.

The National Academies make a number of recommendations. First, federal, state, and local governments should inventory transportation infrastructure with reference to climate predictions. Second, climate change needs to be factored into capital improvement projects, maintenance practices, emergency response plans, and the like. Planners should "use more probabilistic investment analyses and design approaches that incorporate techniques for trading off the costs of making the infrastructure more robust against the economic costs of failure." Government agencies including NOAA, the Department of Transport, the USGS, and other organizations such as universities should work together to inform policy makers and planners of the impacts of climate change.

Unfortunately, none of these will happen for free, and, despite the critical benefits that the US' transport infrastructure brings to its economy, the public seems reticent to accept higher taxation in order to pay for the necessary investment. Unlike the 1950s, when President Eisenhower began the Interstate Highway system, the political reality of the early 21st century seems to be a public that wants to have it's cake but not foot the bill for it.

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